ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Emergency Situation

UCI Medical Center, which last year alone took care of 10,000 indigent and uninsured patients, has warned that it cannot go on losing big dollars. Last year, it was left with a $10.9-million deficit. To show that they mean business, University of California regents have talked about closing the hospital.

The Board of Supervisors has sent an encouraging signal by ordering a study of the county’s support for the center. The supervisors have bought time to sort out a bleak picture in which indigent medical services in Orange County lost much of its funding last year when the state cut support.

There really can be only one long-term response. The county must come up with money by rearranging priorities. The responsibility for providing indigent care falls to it, even with the cuts.

It’s good that the county’s Health Care Agency director, Tom Uram, recommends that the county budget $3 million more to make up for the cutbacks.

But the county has a responsibility beyond providing more money. It must become the architect of a system that will address the needs of the county’s indigent patients on a regional basis.

UC Irvine Chancellor Jack W. Peltason argues that it must fall to the county to design a plan that UCI Medical Center and others can become a part of. He’s right. Hospitals like UCI Medical Center have enough to think about simply delivering care to the needy. The county must design the system and come up with the money to pay for it.